One of the most controversial cases of Bollywood, Salman Khan’s Black Buck Poaching case of 1998, will have its verdict on April 5. The actor was accused of killing two blackbucks while shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum sath sath hain’, in a small village of Rajasthan.

On Wednesday, the Jodhpur Chief Judicial Magistrate Court under the Jodhpur District Presiding Officer Devkumar Khatri issued the date for the verdict in the nearly two-decade-long black deer hunting case.

Along with Salman, his co-actors in the movie Sonal Bendre, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Dushyant Singh were also accused in the case. Salman, during the shooting of the movie, went on a shooting expedition along with his co-stars and killed two blackbucks in the Kankani village of Rajasthan.

The incident was followed by protests by the local Bishnoi community, which led a case to be filed against Salman and the other actors. The court trial with respect to the case has been going on for the last several years. Salman Khan appeared in the court during final arguments in the case against him for the alleged poaching of two blackbucks in village Kankani on October 2, 1998.

Public Prosecutor Bhavani Singh presented the answer on the legal points, during an argument on Wednesday. After the completion of the legal debate by state advocate Bhavani Singh Bhati’s, the CJM fixed the date for the decision in this matter.

Under Section 149 of the Wild Life Act, there is a provision of a maximum prison sentence of seven years for hunting black deer. While there was a provision of six years punishment till a few years ago. As this deer hunting case is of 1998, the provision of the maximum sentence of six years imprisonment will apply.